Katherine Ramsland - Anne Rice Reader

P RISM OF THE N IGHT: A B IOGRAPHY OF A NNE R ICE

T HE V AMPIRE C OMPANION: T HE O FFICIAL G UIDE TO A NNE R ICES T HE V AMPIRE C HRONICLES

T HE W ITCHES C OMPANION: T HE O FFICIAL G UIDE TO A NNE R ICES L IVES OF THE M AYFAIR W ITCHES

T HE A NNE R ICE T RIVIA B OOK

T HE A NNE R ICE R EADER (EDITOR)

T HE R OQUELAURE R EADER: A C OMPANION TO A NNE R ICES
E ROTICA

T HE A RT OF L EARNING

E NGAGING THE I MMEDIATE: A PPLYING K IERKEGAARDS
I NDIRECT C OMMUNICATION TO P SYCHOTHERAPY

Compilation copyright 1997 by Katherine Ramsland
A Literary Friendship: Life Is Not a Footrace 1997 by Kathleen Mackay. The Landscape of Childhood Memories: New Orleans in the Life and Work of Anne Rice 1997 by W. Kenneth Holditch. Let the Flesh Instruct the Mind: A Quadrant Interview with Anne Rice first appeared in Quadrant: The Journal of the C. G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology, published by The C. G. Jung Foundation of New York. Copyright The C. G. Jung Foundation of New York, 1991. Reprinted by permission. October 4, 1948 1965 by Anne OBrien Rice. Nicholas and Jean 1966 by Anne OBrien Rice. The World of the Vampire: Rices Contribution 1997 by Gail Zimmerman. Anne Rice and the Gothic Tradition by Bette Roberts 1994 by Twayne Publishers. Adapted with permission of Twayne Publishers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Macmillan, from Anne Rice by Bette Roberts. Lestat: The Vampire as Degenerate Genius 1997 by Richard Noll. He Must Have Wept When He Made You: The Homoerotic Pothos in the Movie Version of Interviewwith the Vampire 1997 by John Beebe. The Real World of the Free People of Color in Anne Rices The Feast of All Saints 1997 by Robin Miller. The Price of Perfection: Cry to Heaven, Art, and Human Sacrifice 1997 by Michelle Spedding and Katherine Ramsland. How Do They Rate? Elliott Slater and Lasher as Love Slaves 1997 by Claudia Varrin. Erotic Art and the Birth of Self in Belinda 1997 by S. K. Walker. Visions, Dreams, Realities: The Problem of Imaginal Revelation 1997 by Leonard George. Anne Rices Pastiche of the British Thriller : Comparing The Mummy to Sir Arthur Conan Doyles Lot No. 249 1997 by Gary Hoppenstand. More than Kin, Less than Kind: The Mayfairs and the Taltos 1997 by Kay Kinsella Rout.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., for permission to reprint excerpts from The Witching Hour by Anne Rice. Copyright 1990 by Anne Rice OBrien. Grateful acknowledgment is made to Stan Rice for permission to reprint an excerpt from the poem Annes Curls from Some Lamb by Stan Rice. Copyright 1975 by Stan Rice.

http://www.randomhouse.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Anne Rice reader / edited by Katherine Ramsland. 1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-77563-4
1. Rice, Anne, 1941 Criticism and interpretation. 2. Women and literatureUnited StatesHistory20th century. 3. Fantastic fiction, AmericanHistory and criticism. 4. Erotic stories, AmericanHistory and criticism. 5. Horror tales, AmericanHistory and criticism. 6. Witchcraft in literature. 7. Vampires in literature. I. Ramsland, Katherine M., 1953
PS3568.I265Z54
813.54dc21

1997
96-49831

v3.1

Many thanks to the following people for their contributions to this book. Some sent material or helped to locate sources, while others offered comments and assistance, or made themselves available for interviews. In some instances, enthusiastic support was the greatest help of all.

Im grateful to Kimberly Barker, Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst, Mary Farrelly (my beloved and indispensable New Orleans assistant), David Geffen, Lee Anne Haigney, Donna Johnston, Jim Kerr, Jerry Kirsch, Danny Manning, Susie Miller, Ruth Osborne, Michael C. Reindel, and Barbara Trimmer.

Of course, this book would not have been possible without Anne Rice, who gave me the short stories included within, and whose support and encouragement over the years have provided the information and resources that helped me develop the proper perspective for editing a collection like this.

Thanks also to each and every one of the contributors, to my agent, Lori Perkins, to my husband, Steve, and to my coeditors at Ballantine, Joanne Wyckoff and Andrea Schulz.

A nne Rice, the person, is as fascinating as Anne Rice, the writer. For the past several years, I have had the privilege of an intimate association with her while I wrote a biography and four companion guides to her novels. Although its not easy to condense a full biography into a succinct overview, I have done so to provide a historical perspective for the novels discussed later in this book. Readers who would like more detail on Rices life are referred to my Prism of the Night: A Biography of Anne Rice.

I invited Rices longtime friend Kathleen Mackay to write a piece on their relationship. Mackay provides a detailed perspective on a pivotal time in Rices life, beginning with the conference where Rice acquired the agent who sold her first novel, Interview with the Vampire, to Vicky Wilson at Alfred A. Knopf. Mackay witnessed Rices exciting career in its early stages and offers a look back at those first steps. As a writer herself, she gives this friendship a very special place in her life.

In addition, New Orleans native Kenneth Holditch addresses Rices relationship with the city that care forgot.

One of my most interesting interviews with Rice was the one I did for Quadrant, a journal of analytic psychology, for their popular culture issue. In the interview, Rice talks about a number of subjects, both personal and philosophical, that cast light on her approach to her work. I include that interview here in full.

To round out this section, I asked Rice if I could reprint two stories from her college days, which she graciously permitted. They were first published in the mid-1960s in her college literary journal, Transfer. Ill never forget the serendipity of running across them while I was looking at articles in a San Francisco library. I hoped that someday Id be able to give them more exposure, and now I am able to do so.

I like October 4th, 1948 and Nicholas and Jean for the way they display Rices sensual style a full ten years before she published her first novel. The first story, which reveals what it was like for Rice to grow up in New Orleans, takes place on her own seventh birthday and shows her fascination with the spooky old houses of that city.

A nne Rice made her publishing debut in 1976 with her first novel, Interview with the Vampire. She was thirty-four. Since then, she has authored fifteen novels, five of them under other names.